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1. "Born to Run"

When a 24-year-old Bruce Springsteen began writing "Born to Run," he had a title, a surf-guitar riff indebted to Duane Eddy's "Because They're Young" and the Tornados' "Telstar," and some desperate, extravagant hopes. "I had these enormous ambitions for it," said Springsteen, who was, at the time, a hitless cult artist in dire danger of losing his record deal. "I wanted to make the greatest rock record that I'd ever heard. I wanted it to sound enormous, to grab you by your throat and insist that you take that ride, insist that you pay attention – not just to the music, but to life, to being alive." Springsteen started work on the song one day in early 1974, sitting in his bed in a rented cottage a couple of blocks from the beach in Long Branch, New Jersey, and the record then took shape in a small Hudson Valley studio, via six months worth of overdubs, some never used: endless acoustic and electric guitars, electric and acoustic piano, organ, glockenspiel, strings, violin, synth, engine noises and a choir.

"We went through a lot of different ways of playing it," said former E Street Band drummer Ernest "Boom" Carter, who left the band shortly after finishing the song. "I became a pretty good dart player, pool player, hanging out in that studio." Springsteen hit his target, ending up with a brash, careening masterpiece that became his signature anthem. At age 64, he's still able to infuse passion and meaning when he plays it with the E Street Band under blazing house lights.

"It was a record of enormous longing," he says, "and those emotions and desires never leave you. You're dead when that leaves you. The song transcends your age and continues to speak to that part of you that is both exhilarated and frightened about what tomorrow brings. It will always do that – that's how it was built."